Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Birds singing in the sycamore tree

Still working the whole self-portrait thing. This is the at-home me (as opposed to the last one, which was the at-work me). I realize looking at this that when I think I have a neutral expression of calm repose it actually looks like a frown. Have to work on that, although I know when I'm nervous or uncomfortable I tend to smile too much and so there's a happy medium out there somewhere. I so hated as a child being told to smile all the time, but that sounds like a post for another day.

Lesley asked about the maple seed pods and if there was any relation to the sycamore trees she remembered growing up in England. For a week, there hovered just outside my ability to pull it in the memory of some old song with the words "sycamore tree;" I kept trying to let it come to me, to get more than those two words to float in and it finally came. Dream a Little Dream of Me:

(YouTube is taking forever and ever to load for me this morning, so I haven't seen this clip but it promises to be Louis Armstrong's version of the song if you're not familiar with the tune.)

But from what I can tell, there must be some other tree than the American Sycamore that goes by that name, since the American Sycamore has a very different seed pod. Although I'm sorry to have left Lesley's question unanswered, I love little journeys like this, and am so relieved to have finally come up with the song.

[Blogger is giving me font trouble -- I'll try to fix it but if this looks all weird and a jumble of sizes, it is not my fault...]

3 comments:

You were an early bird!I have a self-portrait expression, that is neither a smile nor unhappy, but looks somewhat serious or focused. I think women and girls are overly implored to smile. You look reflective and peaceful, which is better than smiling for the sake of smiling.I will send you Ella Fitzgerald singing "Dream a Little Dream of Me..." it's a favorite of mine, and if Lesley does not have it, I will send it to her as well!

Wow! I didn't mean to put you to so much trouble! But thank you. I think I imagine every one of you northern hemisphere-deciduous tree types to know every last leaf pattern and seedpod detail, when really, you're surrounded by so very many trees of all types. the equivalent would be your expecting me to know all about gum trees, when there are hundreds of eucalypts. Do you remember Gene Pitney singing '24 Sycamore'?I also remember

Don't *pin* my content

Check out this book with my work in it!

Focus: Letters

The story

My son, then about 4 years old, was being his wild self right at bedtime. I said, "no more monkey business!" in my best stern-mom voice, and he looked me gleefully in the eye and declared, "infinity more monkeys!"